Contemporary business aircraft are assembled using hundreds of thousands of rivets. Generally, riveting is preferred in aircraft construction over welding since welding of aluminum alloys is complex compared to steel welding, and welding may weaken the aluminum material at the weld joint. Moreover, riveted connections are easier to inspect and repair.
In a typical riveting operation, a rivet is installed into an opening through two or more pieces of material to be joined together. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the rivet size, shank length and type of rivet (e.g., flush or button-head rivets) are selected by the technician depending upon the joint to be formed. A bucking bar is placed against the shank of the rivet and a riveting gun (or a hammer) is used on the head of the rivet thereby transmitting energy that deforms the shank and secures the joint.
Conventional bucking bars are typically made of solid steel and shaped in various ways to facilitate placement of the bucking bar against the rivet shank (e.g., to get around obstacles or riveting on a curved surface). Bucking bars can be heavy for the technician to hold in place and they transmit repeated vibrations from the high-impact riveting operation to the operator's hand. This leads to discomfort and fatigue for the technician who must repeatedly preform riveting operations during the assembly of an aircraft.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an ergonomic bucking bar. It is further desirable that the ergonomic bucking bar having reduced weight and transmit fewer vibrations than conventional bucking bars. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.